I am dreaming of the beauty I have seen. Autumn in the mountains. A few clouds, swimming aimlessly in the blue sky. The air is fresh and clear. Above the deep canyon of the Indus precariously built on a rock column Altit Fort faces the kingly Rakaposhi. Beyond it a 1000 years old village, once covered by a roof, with its small, winding streets is situated. Houses are still erected the old way, using stone and mud, mixed with Apricot juice. The 144 families built their own school from nursery to college, teaching besides other subjects also science and English. They even have a swimming pool. Women are around, sitting on the roofs, where the tomatoes and the apri-cots are drying. Some cover their head with shawls, some with small caps, some wear their head uncovered. They are friendly and self confident.
In this area, the Hunza Valley, education is 100%.
Oct 29, 2008 12:00 AMStill in Islamabad
you will not believe it, but it is true, only ... I am leaving. It's a pity. It has been a terrific journey.
- Security: Every hotel I stayed in had a guard with a small machine gun protecting it, as I have seen it in India too. At the border of every district the traveller and his or her driver are noticed by the police as they do it in Laos also. Police was friendly, smiling, waving, and relaxed. So much for security.
- Roads: The Karaskorum Highway is under construction and maintenance. They started in the North and in the South, I drove mostly in the middle, was a hell of driving and tiring. But the scenery ... indescribable. The Indus is a mighty river, cutting its way through the mountains. But part of the roads towards Islamabad were nearly perfect.
Skardu: I went by flight to Skardu and got my first sight of the fascinating Nanga Parbat. Skardu received me with the first sandstorm of my life. The town looked that way: dirty, dusty, worn out, but it is a lifely town, this capital of Balistan, when you look behind the bazar and when you go into the village, then you see another picture, well tended houses and gardens, still full of flowers, the trees changing their colours and I enjoyed a beautiful autumn picture.
So long.
Oct 18, 2008 12:00 AMStill in Islamabad
After 8 hours sleeping like a log I started the new day not very fresh but a bit stronger then the day before. The cold really hit me, but ... I saw the Museum of Culture, very interesting and nicely presented. As it was dark we went up to the Pakistan Monument, very impressive, and had a view over the town. When as I was secretly thinking of a hot bath etc. I climbed up the endless stairs to the Faisal Mosque, which was presented to the Pakistan by Saudi Arabia, overwhelming me. Then the electricity went off - as it is the custom in this town, a way to save energy-, but as a woman I was not allowed inside the main part of the mosque, as it is the custom in this country, women pray outside or use the gallery inside. The area of men and women are strictly separated, a custom, which seems to be changing, specially in the big towns, because I saw women, wearing a scarf, where I changed my money, and in other places. It seems that the scarf is protecting them.
Today I was driven to Muree, the old British hill station, nearly nothing is left of them. It is still a town where people go for holidays, I liked the area. The countryside looks so peaceful.
Oct 17, 2008 12:00 AMIslamabad, Pakistan
Today I arrived safely and tired in Islamabad. Weather is wonderful. Hotel Hunza Embassy Lodge is good and friendly, food too, it looks like a private home, no name on the outside in a small street away from the noise of town It's Friday, a day of rest. The muezzin are singing. Now I am off to go sightseeing.
So long.
Nov 18, 2007 12:00 AMHome again
I made it home, but it was an exhausting flight with over four hours delay. It took its toll. Today I finally worked on my last message about Bombay to correct all the mistakes I made.-
I did see, riding in a car, a lot of North and South Bombay, the former is a hillybilly country with forests, but the latter is the hub of town. Here the biggest slum of Bombay, now under development, is situated, it's a small town with narrow lanes, incredible poverty, where I never could have walked around. It has water and a sewage system. But I walked through the area around the Stock Exchange and through the bazaars which reminded me of Dickens and his description of ninetheenth century London, the houses still British, the shops, one beside another, very small, full of merchandise. And the people! It was evening and they were going home from work, the women doing their shopping, the men, carrying goods on their head or pulling heavy loaded carts. Police was around, watching. People were friendly, smiling at me, although a white woman in a red dress was thoroughly scrutinsed. But I felt safe.
It will take some time until I have worked out what I have seen.
Nov 12, 2007 12:00 AMBombay and me
Having made it safely from Delhi to Bombay, named Mumbai nowadays, I entered another world. My host family was glad to see me and we had a lot to share, after we hadn't seen each other for seven years. Then the heat (30`C) and the humidity (84%) took care of me. That's one of the differences. Nevertheless my host is very strict. Every morning we drive to nearby Juhu Beach and do Tai Chi, or he goes to his laughing club and I go for a walk. Juhu Beach is nothing what we would call a clean beach, you can't go for a swim, the water isn't good enough for it. But nevertheless all the world is out doing excersises of all kind. This morning the craws were out, helping to rid the sand of the garbage.
The other difference : Where Delhi is dusty and loud being a major building site in the moment, because of the upcoming Commomwealth games. Road work is done and new commercial centers and a lot of highrises are being built. Bombay in a way is oldfashioned: Trees, old ones, line the streets, which are mostly clean, the town has a garbage disposal. So people, living on the street, don't sleep in heaps of refusal. But don't think the garbage disposal is meant to be social. It is in a building boom too, what will change the skyline of the town profoundly. Business is good, I hear, but people are working hard too.
Nov 05, 2007 12:00 AMStill in Delhi
It's good to live family life again, to enjoy the birtday parties, to go for lunch in different houses, to do some sightseeing, i.e. the Qutab Minar, the column of victory, from times gone by, situated in the midst of a park, nice, specially on a sunday when all the families go there for an outing, and nto walk around Old Delhi to do some shopping, what is an experience of life, I hardly can describe. Friday I will fly to Mumbai.
Nov 02, 2007 12:00 AMDelhi and the rest of it.
Dehli is the kettle of the hex. This time I went with a bicycle rikscha, because my guide thought there would be to many hawkers who would molest me, but I think he didn't want to walk. Old Delhi must have been a dream of a town in the 19th century when the last moghul still was in the Red Fort and the town a culturell center, that was the time before the British took over and destroyed brutally the beauty of it. But you can still see relicts of the old glory, the havelis of the rich are now divided into small shops and livingquarters, the gardens disappeared, because so many people came here to try to make a living, sometimes out of nothing. But on the other hand it is, as I was told, famous for its spice market, for the silver, gold and precious stones business, and when you get married be sure to go here to buy the nicest saris. But as every coin it has to sides. I went into an alley on foot, and what I saw was incredible, a small boy was sitting in a hole on street level selling tea, small shops side by side, sometimes only 1 m broad and 2 m long, stuffed with merchandise, men sitting around in the dirt of the street, waiting for a job, i.e. to carry sacks and packages on their head or their back to another place, or to paint a house. And in between a shopkeeper was fighting with a cow, which was eager to eat up all his nicely decorated fresh vegetables and all around him laughed. Traffik as usual.
Oct 30, 2007 12:00 AMI walked the streets of Dehli.
I did it: I walked from my hotel to Connaught Place! Everyone could recognize me as a tourist - I can't help it I need my hat ...
But ... at the first crossing a boy wanted to sell me books, next a man throw the stump of his arm into my face, tuctucs stopped and wanted to drive me, a man talked to me and offered to show me an Emporium with a governmental certificate, but when I thought I got rid of him I met again and again. whenever I turned around a corner, he was there to show me into the right direction, a security guy asked me whether I was lost, I had to show him my map to be left alone, a woman with a baby wanted a rupie: Madame, madame, ... A Sikh ----
I have to stop now, next more. ... turned up telling me that all these people were directing me to the wrong place, but he knew a market where the offer was good and the prices low. When I got rid of him another one appeared and I gave him one of my looks, but one of the sharpest so he disappeared, but in the next moment another one told me that around the next corner was the best Emporium I would find in the country. At that point I yelled. I thought I got rid of him, no way, the next moment a friendly young man was beside me, saying that the other one was following me and that the area wasn't good for me, although I could have find my way alone he saw to it that I went into the right direction and then he went his own way. And I finally was back in the safety of my hotel. BUT ... I was still alive, I crossed the streets without being overrun by a bus, - a bus in Delhi overran six people in one row! -, BUT I survived! That's me!
Oct 28, 2007 12:00 AMWe made it to Delhi.
Thanks to Tarik, my driver, I arrived safely in Dehli. As the saying is in India: You need a good driver, good brakes and good luck to survive these roads. We started at 10.00 a.m. and with two stops we arrived at my hotel at 6 p.m. Then I was done.
